KM Space

Monday, February 23, 2009

With the launch of my new Compliance Building blog, I have decided to stopped blogging here at KM Space. Since Blogger is free, I will keep the site up. Feel free to keep coming back and using the content here.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Since I still have some posts on my new Compliance Building blog about social networking, enterprise 2.0, web 2.0 and knowledge management, I am going to try to push that information out in a separate RSS feed for those of you interested in those areas.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

With my move from Goodwin Procter to be Chief Compliance Officer at a private equity real estate company, I have been using a blog to keep my notes. I have just open up this blog to the public. You can see what I have been up to at Compliance Building.

It was an interesting experience using a blog as a learning tool. The blog was a very convenient way to link to relevant articles, cases, statutes and regulations that play a role in my job.

If I were in law school now, I would use a blog to keep me notes. The blog platform is just a great way to keep information organized and retrievable. The blog posts are arranged in chronological order, making them easy to find based on date. I use the categories to keep the posts organized by topic. I use the tags to organize the posts around sub-topic, author and publication. Pages provide an overview, with easy editing.

I don't expect that too many of you will be interested in compliance and business ethics. To spare my readers (that's you) I started a new blog rather than putting all of the new information here. By using a new blog, I could also keep it private until I was ready (and the new company) was ready for it to be public.

I also really like the WordPress blogging platform. It offers much more funtionality and flexibility than Blogger.

Please take a look at Compliance Building. If it interests you, please keep going back or subscribe to the blog feed. If it interests anyone at your firm or anyone you know, feel free to pass along the link.

Monday, February 9, 2009

On February 17, 2009, Securities Docket is sponsoring a webcast that will look at the numerous ways that securities and compliance counsel and professionals can now use web 2.0 to promote, market, and network themselves, their practices and their firms as never before.

Please join Bruce Carton, Editor of Securities Docket, and me for a webcast that will discuss the best new tools and strategies available to securities and compliance counsel and professionals, including:

Monday, February 2, 2009

As things continue to wind down here at KM Space, I wanted to say THANK YOU to many of the people who contributed to this experience.

Luis Suarez. Besides his great thoughts at ELSUA.net, Luis also gave me a pass to the 2007 Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston. What I learned there blew my mind on the possibilities of combining knowledge management and enterprise 2.0. This blog has continued on that path ever since.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

They interviewed 229 professionals within organizations across the Asia-Pacific region. The report addresses the use of wikis, blogs, social networks, and RSS in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. The respondents consisted of professionals in tax & accounting, legal, HR and business. Most of them were employed by orgainzation with over 200 employees. the report indicates taht web 2.0 is becoming a way for you to start research and keep up with developments in your industry.

Web 2.0 is rapidly changing the landscape of professional information, with 43.7% of professionals using Web 2.0 tools at least once a week. While results show there is some reluctance for many organisations to adopt Web 2.0 before value can be established, a high percentage of ad-hoc use (at least 25.8%) is occurring due to the accessibility and functionality of the tools. This suggests Web 2.0 applications have gained a significant share of time spent online. We are increasingly using these tools to search, communicate and contribute to the web in both a personal and professional context.

Some highlights from the report:

33% of the respondents in the legal field said they used a wiki for professional purposes at least once a week.

35% of the respondents in the legal field use a blog for professional use at least once a week.

20% of the respondents in the legal field use a social network for professional use at least once a week.

Sure, you can look at the numbers and say that they have not reached early adoption. But, two years ago these numbers would probably be close to zero. I predict we will see these numbers crossing into the majority within two years.

Friday, January 30, 2009

I had the pleasure of meeting Heather back in October and heard her presentation on the selection and adoption of wikis at her law firm.

Since our successful launch, 768 pages, 384 links and 530 internal shortcuts have been added by individual users. The most surprising statistic is that 1,445 documents have been added as attachments. This illustrates the wiki’s overall appeal including its use as a mini Document Management system. ThoughtFarmer has become an effective replacement for the cumbersome Shared Drive. The statistics highlight how easy it is for users, including lawyers, to add pages and content. The automatic navigational structure, search engine and ‘browse by tags’ functionality makes it easier and faster to find information resulting in a substantial drop in the number of email queries. The Intranet has also become a Personal Knowledge Management enabler with many lawyers using their profiles to store personal precedent collections, articles, presentations, speaking notes, etc.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

If you are attending Legal Tech in New York next week and you like knowledge management, then go to the ILTA Knowledge Management Cocktail Reception. It takes place Wednesday, February 4th 2009 from 5pm to 7pm at the Bridges Bar in the Hilton.

Jurafide.com is a networking and marketing site that facilitates communication between U.S. clients and non-U.S. lawyers.

Lawyrs.net looks like a social networking platform for lawyers with some group discussions and legal news.

Omar signed up on Lawyrs but finds that it is missing the ability to pull in your contacts and see who you know is in the site. A fatal flaw.

I did not bother signing up for either one. Legal OnRamp seems to be the dominant site in the world of social networking in the legal field. I previously wrote about my bad experiences with LawLink and ABA's LegallyMinded. I still hold out some hope for Martindale Hubbell Connected. So, I am skeptical that either of these two companies with no apparent connection to the US legal market can provide an interesting online networking platform.

Disclaimer:

This publication, which may be considered advertising under the ethical rules of certain jurisdictions, is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute the rendering of legal advice or other professional advice.

The views expressed on this webpage are my personal views and do not necessarily reflect views of my employer.